Thanks to all of you her reviewed. I especially thank ChocolateChipFudgeyCookie (what an appetizing name!) who's review is my favorite I've ever had.

There are some familiar little characters I just had to put in my story, just because their just so adorable to me. See if you can figure out who!

Vinnie's POV

Chapter 3

"Vince, are you coming or not?" Embry yelled from downstairs.

"Alright, alright!" I screamed back. I guess twenty minutes was a long time for a guy to get dressed. I had pressed my dark green dress shirt God knows how many times, and my dark jeans couldn't have been done better by a professional tailor.

I took a mental assessment of myself, just to make sure I remembered everything. Fresh breath: check; cell phone: check; sanity…

Well, that was out the window, but I already knew that for a while.

When I thought about yesterday –as if I hadn't been replaying it repeatedly through my head the past thirty six hours –I couldn't seem to stop smiling. Leah had that sort of effect on me. All I was looking from her was closure. I'm not even sure what got into me when I asked her out. I wanted to practically throw myself out the door as the words escaped my mouth. And when she said she didn't drink coffee, I thought that was simply a nice way to get out of seeing me.

But then, she had been the one to comment about Quil's party, that we would be able to see each other there. That meant something, didn't it?

I grabbed the keys to my car and went downstairs, Embry chuckling as he waited for me at the door.

"What?" I asked, putting my coat and hat on.

He shook his head. "I hope you realize what you're getting yourself into."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about-" even though I somewhat did; it was about Leah, of course, but I didn't understand why he had said what seemed to be such a negative comment about her—"but I'm starting the car, whether you're present or not. I remember where Quil lives."

He mumbled something incoherent and opened the door, neglecting to get anything to stay warm. It made me feel almost stupid going out in my attire.

"Aren't you going to get cold?" I asked him.

He laughed. "No, I don't get cold too often." His smile didn't leave his face. It seemed like he was enjoying a little inside joke to himself. I went to the driver's side and opened my truck's doors and started the car as Embry got in the passenger seat.

As I started driving, Embry came to notice something. "Are you planning on killing the two of us?" he asked matter of factly.

"Why do you say that?"

"I'm getting my permit soon, and I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to go nearly seventy miles per hour in an area where people only hit about thirty five."

I checked the speedometer. He was exaggerating—I was just under sixty—but I still slowed it down.

In hardly anytime, I parked outside of Quil's old house, looking the same as it ever did. Cars were parked in the driveway and out on the street, showing quite a few guests had already arrived.

Embry looked at me for a second, and then his eyes went wide. He groaned loudly. "Did you seriously manscape?" he asked in disgust.

"No. My eyebrows always look this way," I said quickly. Maybe too quickly.

"Liar."

"Get out of my car, Embry."

He mumbled something –I was getting sick of that habit since he was six years old—and got out, slamming the door.

I followed behind him, my stomach twisting in odd knots. I tried to expect the worst possibility so that I wouldn't get my hopes up for no reason: she wasn't going to show up because I would be. My brainwashing helped little, if at all, to calm my nerves. This girl was causing me physical pain already. What was it going to be like when I saw her, now that I set out to impress her?

Embry didn't bother ringing the door bell or even knocking, and pushed opened the door, stepping inside the house.

There were a few faces that were familiar immediately. Seth, for one, who instantly greeted me once I got inside. I recognized one girl –Kim, I think her name was –who stuck close to another guy's side. She smiled at me and waved. I was probably staring rudely trying to place where I knew her from.

"Hi, Vincent," she said quietly.

"Hi… Kim?"

She nodded. "I didn't know you knew me."

I finally remembered. I had seen her in the hall a few times here and there."That school had only about 200 kids at most. I recognized you."

The guy by her side reached out to me. "Long time, no see, Vince."

I eyed him carefully. "Jared?"

He grinned. "Yep. Good that you're back again."

I reached to shake his hand, but something else seemed to have distracted him and he pulled his hand away, looking over my shoulder and smiling.

"Jake," he said, "you decided to show up."

I turned around and saw a man who I did recognize. Jacob Black was one of Embry's best friends growing up. He had the young, almost childlike face that he always had. It was the fact that he now looked about twenty three instead of nearly seventeen that threw me off a little.

It took me a while to notice, but a small, fair skinned girl –toddler actually—stood next to him, holding tightly to his pant leg. She was the prettiest kid I had ever seen, almost to the point where it was unnatural. She was bundled up tight, a scarf, hat, and mittens matching her long woolen coat. At least someone seemed to actually see that it was snowing today besides myself.

"Yeah," Jacob said to Jared, rolling his eyes, "like I really would miss his birthday."

"I dunno. You've been pretty busy with that girl lately," Jared chuckled.

Jacob smiled softly, placing a hand on the girl's head. "She wouldn't let me leave her behind. She wanted to see everyone again."

So, the girl he was talking with was this girl. I thought at first he might've been talking about a girlfriend. Maybe this was his… No, definitely not. I couldn't see any of her in him. From her pale skin and little rosy cheeks to her little copper ringlets that fell from her hat, she and him were complete opposites.

"She's going to be a regular around La Push?" Kim asked.

"I wish. If her stupid, blood-"

Jared loudly cleared his throat.

Jacob seemed confused, then finally looked to me, his eyes wide. "Oh. Hi, Vincent," he said, seeming embarrassed.

"Nice to see you again, Jacob. How are you?"

"Great. Never better." He seemed sincere about the statement. "How's it going with you?"

"Good, thanks." My eyes wandered to the little girl. She looked at me curiously, then smiled.

I was always good with kids growing up, even working daycare once in a while in La Push and Los Angeles, so I had no problem with squatting down eyelevel with her and smiling. "Hello," I said to her. "What's your name?"

"Renesmee," she said happily.

That was a mouthful, even for me. How could a child be able to say it?

"Renesmee? That's a pretty name."

"Thank you. You can call me Nessie if you want, though. I don't mind."

Do toddlers typically know what the phrase 'I don't mind' even means?

"My name's Vince. How old are you, Nessie?"

"I am four-"

"She's two years old," Jacob quickly said.

Nessie looked up and glared at him, something I didn't think a two year old could do.

He only chuckled, then began walking away. "C'mon, Ness, let's find Claire. She's bound to be around here somewhere."

She smiled and nodded, already over what ever she was angry about before. "Alright." She turned to me. "It was very nice meeting you, Vince," she said just before she left into another room with Jacob.

I turned towards Kim and Jared. "Is that kid a genius or something?"

Jared laughed. "Something like that, I guess. Her dad's pretty book smart. Her mom's just plain clever. I guess you put that together and you get a prodigy or something, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"She's Jake's... well, I don't know. He helps take care of her. Kind of like a godfather or something."

My thoughts left Nessie immediately as I saw Seth in the corner of my eye, reminding me of something not entirely forgotten.

"Seth," I said as I walked up to him, "could you tell me where I could find your sister?"

He looked confused, like he had been when I told him I was at his house for Leah, but he answered the question. "She's out back. There's a gazebo out there you can't miss." He smiled. "You probably remember that, though."

I smiled. "Yeah, I remember."

I walked out the living room and weaved through the crowds of people. Finally getting to the back patio door. I slid it open, the cold air rushing at me quickly, and I took notice as to how exceptionally warm it was in there.

I could see the gazebo from the patio, even though it was yards away. She wasn't there. I walked down the steps and came to find medium sized footprints left imprinted into the snow. I followed them curiously, them leading me to not the gazebo, but to the far left of the property, where a large tree grew.

I circled the tree twice, but there was no one there. Where could she be?

I leaned my back against the tree, just thinking over exactly what I planned on saying if I would have ran into her out here. Maybe if I rehearsed, I wouldn't be so nervous as I was right then.

I didn't have much time to think my speech over, because I soon heard a chuckle, followed by, "Are you stalking me?"

I looked up. If I thought she was beautiful before, just in a tee shirt and shorts, I didn't know how to see her now. She had dark, tight to the skin jeans on, with a light grey deep v-neck shirt on peeking from her white hoodie, which was the same shade as the freshly fallen snow. It even matched her long scarf, which draped around her neck, elongating it. Her bangs were side parted, bringing to notice the skinny white headband she wore on her head.

I gathered my wits together and smiled. "Yes, I suppose I am stalking you. I hope you don't mind much."

She smiled. "Hey, Vinnie."

"Hello, Leah. What's new?"

She shrugged her shoulder. "Same old, same old. Not much of an update since yesterday."

"I'm glad I didn't miss much for once. It seems I've missed a lot since I've been gone. All the guys I've come to meet see again are almost unrecognizable, Jacob's got a god kid-"

Her head tilted to the side a little. "Jacob's here?"

"Yeah. He just came with… Renesmee." I hoped I didn't mess up the pronunciation of her name too badly. It sounded so much better when the child said it, though.

"Oh." She seemed a little surprised. "I didn't realize he brought her along."

"How is she related to him, anyways?"

She sighed. "It's complicated. He's like her… big brother, I guess. Been there for her since she's been born."

"Are her parents are friends of the family?"

She cocked an eyebrow at me. "You're pretty nosey," she said bluntly.

I was embarrassed. "Sorry."

"You wanna go get a bite to eat? I have a feeling whatever food Emily and Quil's mom made will go pretty quick."

"Yeah, sure thing."

Emily… Was she talking about the Emily Young, the girl Sam had left Leah for?

If that were the case, I couldn't help but already despise the woman.

She led the way to the screen doors as we entered the warm home. Once we got inside, it was her that seemed to get double takes every where she went. We went into the living room, and Jacob was sitting on the couch, talking with a little dark haired, olive toned girl about the same age as Nessie. I could only assume she was her playmate, Claire.

As soon as Jacob's eyes caught Leah, he grinned and snickered loudly. He said something to the little girl, who jumped off the couch and went running out the room, a grin on her face. Jacob stood in front of Leah, seeming to peer her over.

She glared, looking a little angry. "What are you looking at?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. You just clean up nice. Why don't you ever put effort into looking nice for the rest of us?"

She looked down at her feet and fidgeted with her nails. "Shut up," she muttered. She was obviously nervous about something he had said.

Maybe Jake was making her nervous… for all the reasons I wanted to make her nervous.

"I'm only saying," he continued. "You look decent when you try, almost pretty."

Decent? Almost pretty? She looked gorgeous! Was this guy delusional? Surely she wouldn't take that sitting down.

Even more surely, a boyfriend wouldn't say that to their girlfriend. I was happy about that small fact.

But she smiled and punched him in the arm. "Jacob Black, don't you have anything better to do instead of insulting me? It's usually the other way around. I make fun of you."

They were only teasing each other. That meant the relationship notion wasn't completely out the window yet.

He laughed. "You're only saying that because you can't think of a better comeback."

She folded her arms across her chest. "Where's Nessie?"

That distracted him enough, and he ran out the room, looking to the ground for the auburn curls, no doubt.

There were about three things I could conclude from eavesdropping on their conversation:

1. Leah dressing like this was different from her usual self.

2. Something –or rather, someone—caused Leah to get dressed up this way.

3. I was going to make sure that Jacob had nothing to do with any of the above. They could just be close friends, they could actually already be together, but I didn't come all the way back to La Push only to lose what I finally decided I would fight for. Just one thing I wanted:

Her.

Wouldn't Nessie and Claire make great playmates? I think so.

I know that Nessie runs a temperature like Jake does, but I could only imagine that between Jake, Bella, and Edward, she'd be bundled up pretty tight on any cold day, don't you think?

Such an odd perspective Vinnie had of Leah and Jake's relationship… He's sensing some Blackwater (I love that phrase for some reason!). Will that be in the story at all? REVIEW and I'll write the next chappie quicker.

One promise though: There will be more Leah and Vinnie action next chapter. I need the reviews to keep me going though, or else I'll just pull the plug on the story.

Cocoa